Still training at 86, D. Wayne Lukas will saddle his 50th horse for the Kentucky Derby

The old man’s still got it, sitting high atop his horse at Churchill Downs on Thursday morning, out on the track, overseeing his operation.

At age 86, this is what D. Wayne Lukas lives for, back in the sport’s biggest weekend with Secret Oath in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks and Ethereal Road in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

“I don’t think I’d still be doing it if it was just the Wednesday races or something like that,” the trainer said Thursday, sitting in his office at his familiar Barn 44. “I wouldn’t have the same passion.”